So, you’re confused about whether you really need a wedding planner? Not sure if you can do it by yourself or whether it will be a waste of money to hire a wedding planner in Naija? Read on for 6 surefire signs to help you make the best wedding decision. While the services of a wedding planner cannot be under-estimated, the truth is that not everyone needs a wedding planner – and it has nothing to do with being able to afford it. Some brides-to-be start off knowing whether or not they want to use a wedding planner for their Nigerian wedding, some people are confused about it. In this post, I give you the 6-point test for knowing without a doubt whether you need a wedding planner or not. Swipe/ scroll down to read on.
Some brides and grooms have always known that they want or do not want a wedding planner, many brides are confused and often ask “how do I know if I need a wedding planner?” To help you decide whether to use a professional wedding planner or plan it yourself, check out our 6-point test for you know if you absolutely must use a professional wedding planner
#1: If You Feel Overwhelmed
Most brides go from excitement to a feeling of overwhelm when planning their wedding. Suddenly, the long list of tasks in their wedding checklists makes them skip a heartbeat. You’re not alone if you feel that way. There are a few things you can do to feel better. You can read all about that on how to deal with wedding planning anxiety and stress.
Don’t worry, a professional wedding planner can be hired at any point in the wedding planning process. If you’ve gone far in the planning and are closer to the wedding date, consider handing over the remaining tasks to a wedding planner. Yes, some professional wedding planners offer coordination services where they can either come in on the day of your wedding to coordinate the event and ensure nothing goes wrong when you’re having fun. Usually, day-of-wedding-coordination services start before the day of the wedding, from a week or two weeks before. This type of service is cheaper than full-on wedding planning, depending on how much work is remaining.
- READ ALSO: Day of Wedding Coordination Checklist
If you’re feeling stress and anxiety around the beginning of your wedding planning, and you strongly feel that you cannot go ahead, consider hiring a wedding planner. Wedding planning should be enjoyed by a bride and groom, step aside and let someone do it, once you find yourself not enjoying the process anymore.
#2: If You are Extremely Busy
if you’re too busy (maybe work schedule doesn’t give you enough free time) to put the time to planning your wedding, chances are that a wedding planner will take the load off your neck. If you have a very stressful and time-consuming job or business, there’s no way you can juggle that with planning a great wedding, which is equally stressful.
You and your close friends and family (who can help you) may not have the time to plan your wedding the way you’d like. Time is the most important factor a wedding planner can save you, as these days most couples, as well as their parents, friends, and siblings, work. In summary, if you’re a very busy person, consider hiring a professional wedding planner.
Some busy couples feel that having a long engagement or planning a 12-month wedding is more stressful, and simply want to get it all done with. This types of people opt to plan their weddings within a short time frame, and if you feel that way, here are some helpful guides for you:
- READ ALSO: How to Plan a Nigerian Wedding in 3 Months or Less
- How to Plan Both a Traditional and White Wedding on Same Daye
#3: If You’re Planning From Afar
If you’re living far from where your Nigerian wedding will take place, it only makes sense to find reliable people who know the good vendors around the area. You can’t entrust the most important day of your life to friends and relatives you’ll only follow up with on the phone. You can’t guarantee they are doing anything while you’re far away, because you’re not paying them for their service. You can’t afford to fly in wedding service providers from afar and family and friends may make you feel they’re doing the leg-work for you when they’re not.
What you should do is to find someone who is on the ground in Nigeria or the country and city you plan to wed. Have that person do all the face-to-face interactions on your behalf, while you’re away. Sometimes, your relatives may or may not be that person. So, instead of letting your Aunt tell her friend’s friend, ask around for a reputable wedding planner who has worked with those vendors in the past, and knows the good and bad ones. You can find reputable wedding planners and vendors on social media if you follow the tips we outlined in the post linked below:
#4: If You Are Not Familiar With Vendors in Your Wedding City
Consider hiring a wedding planner if you are not familiar with the city you will get married in (wedding location), and don’t know who to ask for where to find good wedding vendors – even if you live in the area or traveled there to put things in place. Popular scenarios like this include planning a destination wedding in Dubai, Paris or anywhere in the World – and you live in Nigeria.
A professional wedding planner in that area already knows good wedding vendors that provided awesome services and products at previous wedding events they coordinated. They also know the not so good wedding service providers to avoid. And they know how to ask for special discounts for their clients, saving you money. So, if you don’t have the time to plan your wedding yourself, don’t know where to find vendors in the area and/ or do not have close friends and family to coordinate the vendors on your wedding day, my advice is to find a wedding planner. You can find one that will work within your budget.
#5: ‘Too Many Cooks’ Syndrome
If you have a lot of family drama and everyone wants to be involved. Maybe your mother-in-law, your mother and/ or everyone in the groom’s family and yours is pushing their ideas down your throat, it’s better to get a professional wedding planner. Wedding planners are already familiar with such situations and know how to diplomatically get all parties to agree to the wedding the way the couple wants it. It’s okay to listen to people’s input about how to run your wedding, thank them gracefully, decide with your fiance on what to do and simply let everyone know that – tell them nicely but firmly. Remember the saying: too many cooks (almost always) spoil the broth.
#6. If You Have a Habit of Over-Spending
Now, this is a bonus point – I told you I’ll give you five points, now this is the sixth. If you are a natural spendthrift and have a problem staying on budget, consider getting a professional wedding planner who will manage the wedding budget you have to ensure you don’t overspend, in addition to taking care of every other wedding planning logistics.
Extra Cautions For When Using a Wedding Planner or Going Solo
While we recommend that every bride hires a professional wedding planner, so that she can have peace of mind, stay stress-free during wedding planning and be “a guest in her own wedding”, it is also true that you can definitely have a great wedding without a wedding planner – that’s if you’re an organization freak, have the time, know how to delegate (the wedding planning) tasks to others and have family and/or friends who are willing to help and know-how to ask others for help.
Hire the Wedding Planner that You Vibe With: Finally, if you do choose to go with a wedding planner, be sure it’s someone that you get along with, listens to you and is creating you (and your fiance’s) dream wedding and not her own dream – use our wedding pre-planning quiz for couples to help you articulate your personal wedding dream before you ever start discussions with a wedding planner. Don’t hire a wedding planner who gives the impression that s/he is in charge of “the show” – it’s your wedding and you should be in charge and asked before any decision is taken. Don’t believe what a planner tells you about how awesome they are, do your findings of them before deciding.
Protect Yourself: And, don’t forget to protect yourself by getting everything in writing. Ask for a written and signed contract document (not just a payment receipt) that has a list of all included services, what you are charged and how many times you need to pay the service fees – just so there will be no confusion or disagreement after you hire the wedding planner. Furthermore, it’s better to hire a planner who works with a company or a large team alone versus one who works alone.
- And, if you cannot afford to pay a wedding planner, use our steps on your personal wedding reception coordination plan – of course using friends and family to help out.
Now hear it from one of Nigeria’s top wedding planner, Funke Bucknor-Obruthe (video below).
Takeaways: Hiring a Wedding Planner
Whether you are getting married in Nigeria, abroad, at a hired venue or even at your backyard, a good wedding planner can help you keep laid-back, enjoy your pre-wedding period and deliver your wedding day just the way you dreamed it – with peace of mind. However, for brides with the big-picture vision, have the time and people available to help her, creating a kick-ass wedding day is still possible without a wedding planner.
You should not feel obligated to hire a wedding planner just because someone you know used one. Every couple’s situation and natural talents is different and some people really enjoy the planning process and have plenty of time to do it themselves. If you’re an organization freak, and the one who is always helping your church, friends, club, and association organize their events, and really enjoy doing events for fun, chances are that you naturally would want to plan your own wedding yourself. However, some people just hate the idea of organizing things or even themselves – for such people, they would never want to consider planning their own wedding.
There’s no right or wrong way about it how you choose to coordinate your wedding – on your own or hiring a pro. It all depends on your natural talents for organization, your budget and whether you have people around to help you plan the wedding. And if you decide to plan it yourself, be sure to hand it to a professional wedding planner when you start getting tired/ bored with it or confused.
Useful Resources for DIY Brides and Grooms Who Want to Learn to Plan their Weddings Themselves Just Like Experts
- NaijaGlam’s Rolodex of FREE, downloadable and printable wedding planning tools – the same tools that wedding planners (shh! don’t tell them oo, so that Nigerian wedding planners won’t get angry with us)
- Our Wedding Planning articles arranged orderly for couples just starting to plan their big day – so you know what to read first, and next and next.
- Wedding Planner in a Box: In one single click, get all our most important DIY wedding planning tools to help you easily organize your wedding if you won’t use a wedding planner.
Make sure that no matter who you ask to help coordinate your wedding plans, whether a planner or a friend, you are in charge of the decision-making process. In the end, you are the one (or your parents) who is paying for all of the services that day and it is your wedding day! Make sure to read our follow-up articles that will teach you how to choose a wedding planner.
- FUN WAY TO LEARN WEDDING PLANNING TIPS: Nigerian Wedding Planning Scenes and Tips from SGIT Movie
Now, it’s your turn to talk back to me in the comments box below – now that you’ve read our five-point test to determine whether you need a wedding planner, tell me – will you be using a wedding planner or not? If so, why and if not, why?
Vic says
Since my engagement, I have spent every single day on this site. So many helpful information, I can’t get enough! Please keep up the good work! I need a wedding planner for my traditional wedding in Benin city, Edo State( I am trying to stay within a budget). Do you know any I can reach out to?
Stella Anokam says
Hello Vic, thank you very much for the feedback, which helps us to do better.
Check your inbox (email) for the Benin Wedding Planner.
I need a wedding planner,how do I get one quickly
Hello Dominica. You can find a good wedding planner (and any other wedding vendor) in any of the 11 places listed here (click this).
This article is so on point. Nigerians don’t like to use planners because we are jack of all trades and feel it’s a waste of money; it actually is when you get the wrong contractor. Even a planner needs another planner for their own major events.
Lovely piece!!
Hey Sola, thanks for coming by. I agree with you 100%, you get bad service if you don’t do your due diligence before hiring a wedding planner. Most Nigerian wedding decorators will say they’re wedding planners + hire out rentals for wedding receptions and also do cakes and catering. If one is not jazzed, how can you possibly think s/he will deliver? These days most people work – bride, groom, their siblings and parents too, so it’s no longer realistic to think that busy family members will be available to help out. Again, thanks for your comment, Sola. Come back more oo.